PrepTest 136, Section 1, Question 25
Advances in scientific understanding often do not build(475 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(18 more words not shown)
- Athe results of(15 more words not shown)
- Bthe results of(12 more words not shown)
- Cthe clear chemical(14 more words not shown)
- Dthe fact that(29 more words not shown)
- Ethe fact that(12 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
What had been present for some time? The experimental results suggesting that uranium atoms were being split. The missing piece was the conceptual link, not the entire body of evidence. The final sentence returns to the opening's account of results accumulating between 1934 and 1939.
What we’re looking for
So we want the broader evidence produced during those years. A particular finding can be important without being the whole collection the phrase refers to.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
These are the results accumulated by the physics community before their significance was recognized. This includes work by the people involved in the eventual discovery; the evidence doesn't have to come from unrelated predecessors to have existed before the final insight.
- B
This narrows the reference to Meitner's experiments in one year. The author describes a wider history involving Fermi, Meitner, Hahn, and others, not just that limited set of results.
- C
Hahn's identification of barium is a crucial part of the story. But it is one specific finding, while the final sentence refers back to the relevant evidence that had been accumulating more broadly.
- D
The particle totals are another important clue. They help explain the conceptual connection, but this answer again selects a single relationship instead of the accumulated experimental results.
- E
The delay in identifying the products isn't itself evidence that atoms were splitting. The products and experimental findings provide the evidence; the delay is what the history helps explain.
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